ANBG Friends Plant Science Group - Technical Talk

Dispersal and disturbance drive diversity

Dr Crid Fraser, Biologist, Fenner School, ANU. Current ACT Scientist of the Year.

Dr Fraser is broadly interested in the influence of environmental conditions, including past and future environmental change, on global patterns of biodiversity. She uses a wide range of techniques to address research questions, including ecological and genetic approaches, and has a particular focus on the high-latitude ecosystems of the Southern Hemisphere (the sub-Antarctic islands and Antarctica).

Dispersal is a fundamental process that shapes the distributions of many plants. Dispersal is critical for initial colonisation events, particularly following large-scale disturbances. In this talk Dr Fraser will give an overview of how dispersal and disturbance shape spatial patterns of diversity, especially for plants. She will focus on examples from her biogeographic research on diverse Southern Hemisphere systems including sub-Antarctic, Australian and New Zealand seaweeds, and mosses and other organisms in Antarctica.